‘The Greatest Cat Painting Ever Made’ Curls Up With Portland

The 1891 painting hailed as “the greatest cat painting ever made” is now hanging in the Portland Art Museum in Oregon, where it will be on loan until May 15. “My Wife’s Lovers,” depicting 42 cats belonging to a wealthy San Franciscan, Kate Birdsall Johnson, who had commissioned it, was sold in November at a Sotheby’s auction for $826,000, including a buyer’s premium – nearly three times its highest estimate.

The painting’s new owner, John Mozart, had first seen an image of it more than 15 years ago in New York and ordered it as a framed poster for his cat-loving mother. “I didn’t even know the painting existed,” the Silicon Valley real estate developer said. Then a few months ago, he was thumbing through the Sotheby’s fall auction catalog and came across the cats in their original painting form. (Watch a Sotheby's video about the painting here.)

Carl Kahler’s masterpiece gained fame at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and was one of the few artworks rescued from a gallery destroyed during the 1906 San Francisco quake. At nearly 6-by-8.4-feet, the canvas, showing so many cats sitting together in a single place, is immense. Struck by the painting’s history and California connections, size, and association with his late mother, Mozart decided to bid. “I rarely buy paintings,” he said. “I don’t own any cats. I have a dog...some fish.”

Portland would be ideal for “My Wife’s Lovers”: The city ranks third nationally for adults owning a cat (30%), following Spokane, Wash. (36%), and Albany/Schenectady, N.Y. (31%), according to a Nielsen Scarborough USA+ 2015 survey. The museum will partner with the Oregon Humane Society and Purringtons Cat Lounge; host a performance by Moshow, the “Cat Rapper;” and showcase cats in its own permanent collection.

Meanwhile, Mozart is pondering another stop after Portland: the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts. Its show, “Meow: A Cat-Inspired Exhibition,” runs from May 21-Sept. 4.